17 more shopping days...

So... who besides me, has not finished shopping for Christmas?

I took the kids to the mall yesterday.
I bought one Christmas gift.

But I did come home with this adorable photo.


I have an extremely busy week coming up. I have some paintings to paint, AND some assignments for papercraft companies. I was going to make it a point to blog each and every day until Christmas, but just in case I don't, well.... you'll know.

Here is the first painting I created in over a year. It's 30" wide and 2 feet tall.
Called "Jerusalem".



And last but not least, a quote from Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? "It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And he puzzled and puzzed, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't thought of before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. "Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"

As Promised...Photos on the Bayou

I still have not gone through all my bayou photos. My husband's niece gave us a wonderful Christmas gift by using her photography talents. What a blessing (thanks, Becca!) My Christmas photo cards have now been ordered!

In no particular order, here are a few of the "photos on the bayou"... Louisiana style. Yes, I haven't edited them. I told you I had too many to go through.


















Meanwhile, hopefully the house will have all it's festive decorations completed by Saturday! Including lights on the house.

The Festival of Lights

Happy Hanukkah!
Happy Chanukkah!

Growing up on the deep south, I never learned about Jewish culture. There aren't many Jewish people in the south, and certainly not in the small country town I grew up in. As I got older and began to study more, I have come to have such a love and appreciation for Jewish Festivals.

I found a wonderful reading on Hanukkah at this site. I loved this phrase:

The Hanukkah candelabrum, or menorah, has nine branches, one to hold a candle or oil for each of the eight nights, and one to light the others, known as the shamash (servant). We light one candle a night until all eight burn brightly, symbolizing our efforts to continually bring more light (holiness) into the world. We place the menorah in the window of the home to remind one and all of God’s never-failing protection.

I love the symbolism of bringing more light into the world. I guess I can tell that to my hubby and maybe he'll finally hang the lights on the front of the house. (smile).

When I studied the roots of the Christmas tree several years ago - (look it up if you don't know) it made me not even want a tree. I tried to celebrate Hanukkah, but my menorah needed tiny candles and I couldn't find what I needed. They kept falling over. It's just not the same when you weren't brought up doing it. (stop laughing). When I started scrapbooking - I realized that having memories and traditions was important to instill in my children. Even if the whole Santa thing has nothing to do with our faith. I needed for them to have the memory of a special time of family. We stopped traveling to see family on Christmas morn (sorry if I'm drifting a bit from the topic) and started the tradition of staying home, cooking a wonderful Christmas dinner, and watching "The Christmas Story" over and over and over and laughing and laughing. I want my kids to have those memories and not be rushing from house to house.

As a Christian, this time of year, even though historically it's not actually the birthdate of Jesus Christ, it is a time where his birth is in the forefront. From songs on the radio, to nativity scenes in the front yards (and in stores if they aren't protested) - it is a time to rejoice. Records indicate that Mary actually conceived Jesus during the Festival of Lights (thus 9 months later during the Feast of Tabernacles would be his birth). How appropriate for the "light of the world" to be conceived during the Festival of Lights.

It's too long to post here, but I like what Jeris Cribbs wrote here and a phrase from that writing:

When we observe Hanukkah, we not only reflect on a momentous event in history--an uprising resulting in religious freedom for the glory of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--but we look on it as truly a time of a celebration of Light. The Light of the world, Jesus Christ, illuminating the world with a promise of a new life, a new beginning for all who come to Him!

May the Light illuminate in and through you this wonderful season.

Santa's Coming!!

Tomorrow morning...10am... Santa's coming to town..

SANTA!!!!...

This is one of my favorite ringtones. I got it free at phonezoo.com. Everytime the kids hear it ring, they just start laughing. I found this clip (from Elf) at YouTube. I just like to smile. Smiling's my favorite. And if you like to smile, too - here's a little something for you. Click below.


are you smiling now?

We went to the bayou this weekend for family portraits. Christmas portraits to be specific. I promise, I WILL load some of the photos my wonderful niece took - there were soooo many I haven't had time to go through them all. I did, however, have a project I needed to get done and what better inspiration is there than fresh photos. I used Piggy Tales papers, chipboard and barndoor for this. Stay tuned for more. And keep smiling.

Feliz Navidad!

Feliz Navidad!
Happy Christmas!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas. No, our tree isn't up, but the boxes of decorations are all in the middle of my living room. I'll have to re-arrange furniture before we can set up the tree. But we MUST put up the tree. That is the only way to stop the questions: "Can we put up our tree today? Please? Can we put it up??"
It's hard to explain why your tree isn't up to a child when your neighbors have lights and reindeer and blow-up Santa's in their yard.

Back to Feliz Navidad. Our radio seems to have only the same 25-30 holiday songs or so it seems that they play over and over and over. Gee, you'd think they didn't know there were 1,000's of others out there. Okay - so that's another post. Well, Feliz Navidad was playing the other day (well, every day, but I'm talking about one day in particular) and I KNOW how it's spelled. n-a-v-i-d-a-d (isn't that correct??) But what I'm hearing is "navi- LOT". I'm not hearing "dad" or even "dod". My little ole ears were hearing "lot". Does anyone out there speak fluent spanish and can tell me if this is how it's pronounced?

Anyway - Christmas Wishes to you today - however it sounds on your radio.

Here's a little gift idea to create. This is TOTALLY and UNDENIABLY scraplifted from one of my favorite cardmakers - Hilary. Keep green and recycle those Starbucks bottles! I used Piggy Tales' Baa Baa Black Sheet papers and Paper Salon stamps.



Well, back to creating!

Enchanted

It's always a treat to go to the movies. Hubby took me to see (after I begged) Enchanted on Friday night. It truly lived up to it's name - it was enchanting. I especially liked seeing cartoon people transform into real people. Much like in the video (below) how the cartoon Carrie Underwood transforms into real life. Cool, huh?



And the best part - hubby thoroughly enjoyed the movie. So... it's not just for the girl at heart.

Some New Projects

Yeah! I can share these now. These are the projects for my first assignments for Creative Xpress. The complete tutorial is in the "academy" section of the site. For the layout, we had to make a fall page using a circular composition. Can you tell these photos are a couple of years old? For the cards, we had to make Christmas cards using the Cricut and that are easy to scraplift.

Louisiana's Black Bayou

It's December 1 and instead of getting the house ready for the holidays, we went out to Black Bayou for a photo shoot. My husband's niece takes awesome portraits, so we wanted her to take some for our holiday cards. I'll post of few of her photos later, but I took my camera and took a few interesting Louisiana photos.

When we arrived at the end of the dock, we were greeting by a turtle who was sunning himself on a log. But this wasn't just any turtle sitting on a log. He had his left back leg up and was holding - as still as a statue. We looked at him with the super powerful telescope that was available on the dock and it was soooo strange. He never moved. He must have strong muscles. I took a photo of him and zoomed in as much as I could. The sun was facing us, so he's more of a silhouette, but look at that leg!



Here are some more of the photos I took today. The bayou was full of white egrets (a type of heron). They are so beautiful. The sky was so blue. It's a great place to take nature photos. We'll have to go back and do that. The other photos are ones I took of Arielle and Jasmine when we went for a walk in the neighborhood. Yeah - looks like fall has just hit the south, meanwhile my friends up north are weathering several inches of snow.










Check back later and I'll share a few of the pics our niece took! Now, time to get the house ready for Christmas!

How did the shepherds know where to look??

How did the shepherds know where to look for baby Jesus? More specifically which stable?

Last night at church my daughter was so excited to see the Christmas decorations up. She was especially excited to see a beautiful nativity scene set up on a large side table. Beautiful, almost Victorian figures with real gold threads in the fabrics. The sheep had touchable fur on them. Just beautiful. We couldn't pull her away.

This reminds me of the shepherds. A couple of years ago one of Daniel's friends came home with us after church for the afternoon. Sometime during the ride home, the subject of the nativity came up and one of the kids (or me?) asked:

"How did the shepherds know which stable to find the baby in?"

One of the kids said "Because there was a star over it".

Hmmmm... I don't remember reading that. The scriptures say that the angels came to the shepherds and told them the news but it doesn't mention that they gave specifics.

Luke 2:8-18 (contemporary english version)

That night in the fields near Bethlehem some shepherds were guarding their sheep. All at once an angel came down to them from the Lord, and the brightness of the Lord's glory flashed around them. The shepherds were frightened. But the angel said, "Don't be afraid! I have good news for you, which will make everyone happy. This very day in King David's hometown a Savior was born for you. He is Christ the Lord. You will know who he is, because you will find him dressed in baby clothes and lying on a bed of hay."
Suddenly many other angels came down from heaven and joined in praising God. They said:

"Praise God in heaven! Peace on earth to everyone who pleases God."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

I really didn't want to tell the kids "no, there wasn't a star over the stable". I always thought that, but I needed to make sure not to tell them something incorrect. I remember when I was little I would draw manger scenes with my crayons and put a big star centered right over the manger. I used to look in the sky at Christmas and look for the biggest star and imagine the shepherds following it to find the baby. So, when we got home for church - I googled the question I asked previously. I was amazed at what I found and think of it every time I see the nativity scene.

The answer to this is found in Micah 4:8:
“And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.”

The "tower of the flock" is the Hebrew phrase Migdal Edar and means "watch tower of the flock". This tower was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks that pastured on the barren sheep ground beyond Bethlehem, but it lay close to the town, on the road to Jerusalem. Jewish writings lead to the conclusion that the flocks which pastured there were destined for Temple sacrifices. The shepherds who kept them were men who were specifically trained for raising sacrificial lambs. They were educated in what it took to keep these lambs spotless and unharmed. These lambs were apparently wrapped in "swaddling cloths" to protect them from injury.

And these shepherds knew what the scriptures prophesied.

Micah 5:2 foretells what city the Messiah would be born in.
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”


this website states:
Thus, the fields outside of Bethlehem became the place where a special group of shepherds raised the lambs that were sacrificed in the Temple. Being themselves under special Rabbinical care, they would strictly maintain a ceremonially clean stable for a birthing place. The Tower of the Flock was used for birthing ewes, and the surround fields were where these shepherds grazed their flocks. These shepherds customarily kept their flocks outdoors twenty-four hours a day every day of the year, but brought the ewes in to deliver their lambs where they could be carefully cared for. It was to this place that Joseph took Mary. It was in this special stable at “Migdal Edar” that Christ was born! How do we know? The Micah 4:8 tells us so.

So - think about it (if you haven't already arrived there). The shepherds that kept the special flock in Bethlehem (or near Bethlehem) knew the prophesies. They knew that the Messiah would be born there. They were always waiting for it. And they knew exactly where to would happen - it says so in Micah 4:8 "the tower of the flock".

So, who else would the angels have told but the ones who attended to the care of this special flock. The ones who understood it the most. It was to the shepherds that tended these special flocks that the angels appeared to and first proclaimed the birth of the Messiah, Jesus. Luke does not record that the angels told the shepherds where the manger was, because they already knew where the lambs were born! (how cool is that!) It was in the “tower of the flock”, where there were ceremonially clean stalls, carefully maintained by Temple priests who oversaw the birth of each lamb. This was a special sheep birthing place where Jesus, “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world” was born. (John 1:29, 36). God in His plan could not have choosen a more appropriate place for the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I hope this blessed you. I'm always amazed that the simplest things, the ever-so childlike questions, can lead to such treasured discoveries. If this was new revelation for you, you'll probably be like me when you see the nativity scene and think about the "tower of the flock" and all it means. Be blessed!

I want to credit THIS SITE as a source for most of this information and encourage you to go there for even more info.

And just because I haven't shared a project on my blog in weeks, here is an angel ornament me and my little miss made over the Thanksgiving break. This is one of the projects made with the November Self-Addressed Kit.

Just so you know...

I did NOT drop off the face of the earth. I did not go on vacation. I am not working on a secret project and I have not lost internet connection.

I have been working fast and furious on craft projects and have also pulled out the paint and canvas to get some paintings done. If I am lucky - I will be able to complete some small paintings to put on ebay for people to purchase for holiday gifts. I would think they would be quite collectible being that they will be only a small handful of paintings from my offered in 2007. We'll see.

I've basically been home with the kids for nine straight days (since they get a whole week out for school). I've missed some of my spin classes due to other pre-holiday tasks, but I enjoyed cooking for Thanksgiving.

My daughter actually caught on to what it means to let mom sleep late- of course it was the last day of the long nine day stretch. Once she realized that some people like to sleep longer than she does and that waking them from a dream to say "hi - I'm awake" isn't something desireable. She make herself a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, got a Sunny D and watched cartoons while I slept an extra hour. And it was raining outside... it was nice to sleep in. I almost forgot what it was like.

So.... as soon as I'm brave enough to go into the stores, I'll be purchasing some storage bins for my Fall decorations and getting ready for the Christmas. No matter how much I am not ready for it.

Did any of you venture out this past Friday? My mom called from the mall at 8am and said "It's a madhouse". I said "what's new?". LOL

I'll try to get some projects or photos up soon. later!

The Spinning Dancer

Someone showed me this spinning dancer (link below). What is so bizarre is that depending on your left-brain / right-brain dominance, she will be either spinning clockwise or counterclockwise. I only saw it one way until I "made" my brain see it the other

Wanna play???

Here's the link: The Spinning Dancer

One of my friend insisted that the computer image was "changing". My son also said that until he realized it was just his perception. (gee, sounds like something we can apply to our lives, huh). I turned my head sideways and stared at the balancing foot and actually saw her swing half way to the left, then bounce back half way to the right - and so on. (Hmmm..wonder if that means my brain is really out of whack??)

No need to comment on my last statement.

Murphy's Law

I thought one of "Murphy's Law" was: what goes around comes around, but no - that is more like something from the "My Name is Earl" show aka "karma". And since I don't believe in karma - I guess this is just something that goes around at will (or as in the show - Earl and not Will.)

Regardless, one thing that will go around again and again and again is "You've Been Tagged". If you have ever tagged someone, no doubt you WILL be tagged. I was tagged last night, then again this morning. I guess I should be thankful that it happened so close together.

Thank you, Robyn (I've enjoyed your blog) and Julia (didn't you do this to me before?? for making me update my blog today.

So - here are the rules:
1-Link to your tagger (see above), and also post these rules on your blog. Done!
2-Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3-Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4- Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

So... here goes
1. I took piano for 7 years, flute for 1, and clarinet for 4.
2. I like cold fried chicken.
3. I've never scuba dived, but would love to.
4. My grandmother was a Native American.
5. I bite my nails.
6. I don't listen to country music on the radio, but I like to watch country videos.
7. (Last one!) I can see you right now as you read this.

JUST KIDDING on no. 7. Did I creep you out? Okay - for No. 7, how about: I can jump rope and cross my arms, uncross them without missing a beat. My son was totally amazed.

Now the fun part, I get to "tag" 7 more people (as I run from Murphy's Law). Here goes,


Amber, Donna, Sherry,Celia, Barb, Theresa and last but not least....Tami.

Happy Monday, everyone!

My new Scarlet Lime kit!

The nice postal person brought my first Scarlet Lime kit to the door Saturday. I couldn't actualy do anything with it until today other than look at the yummyness of it and dream. My daughter was on the bed with me looking at all the papers, felt flowers, trims, doilies and stamps and she oohed and aaghed as much as I was. So in honor of little miss, my first page has her bright smiling face on it.

Meanwhile I got to play with some of my new Paper Salon papers last week. This card uses "First Blush". Have a great week!

TGIF!!

Yes - it's FRIDAY!!!

I'm heading out to crop with scrapbookers from our old scrapbook store. We still manage to get together once a month. So while I wait for a few minutes to pass- here are a few pics of me and one of my scrapbook friends celebrating our birthdays this week at one of the local restaurants. We went to a really cool Italian restaurant. I guess I won't tell you the name of the restaurant b/c my friend - well, she found something in her salad. Nothing bad (well, I can think of worse) - just a part of the packaging that must have somehow fell in her food. A funny thing about that is 2 months ago I was eating out with another friend and she found something in her food. Part of "packaging"... but totally different than this time. I have to ask this question to those of you that cook. Do you drop packaging parts into your food when you cook? I can't ever recall doing that. Hmm.... Anyway - the nice little waiter took a few pics of us just in case my self-timer pic didn't turn out. And he brought us a bread pudding to celebrate the week. That huge salad was mine, and no - I did not eat it all. Not even half. And I had to take a few pics of the surroundings. Oh - and at the bottom of this post - look for new about a contest!








Pssstt - want to win some NEW product from Flair Designs? Check out THIS LINK!. I hope you can play! Good luck and Happy Friday!

It Feels Like Fall!

Finally! This morning it actually felt like fall! My son had on a sweatshirt hoodie on and I said "you are going to burn up in that" but he goes "No, mom - it's COLD outside". Well, 57 degrees at 7am isn't exactly cold but it sure was nice.

In honor of fall finally visiting the south - here is a fall-themed gift set. A Thanksgiving gift bag and two Thanksgiving cards. These are made using Piggy Tales Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater collection. This collection includes adorable rub ons, coordinating cardstock stickers and yummy ribbon!

Psst.. Want to win some Paper Salon Stamps?

There is a cool little challenge going on the Paper Salon Blog. If you participate, your name will be put in a drawing to win a Paper Salon Tailored Tin stamp set. How cool is that! Check it out.

Be sure to check out the new images on the right side of the Paper Salon blog. The new releases are up!

September with Sweetwater

I got to play this weekend with Sweetwater's September Kit. I used some old photos - some much older than others. The one of my daughter was a few years ago at fall festival. The other is me and my siblings camping somewhere out west way back when.....

Inque Boutique in da house (and a flair sneak peek)

pppssst.... I now have in my possession 5 of the new Inque Boutique CHA Summer release stamp sets. I just wanted to spread the word that they have hit the stores. I ordered mine from Sonshine Craft and this week I noticed that Scrap Supply has them in. If you are looking for these stamps - hurry before they sell out and you have to wait for restock. :)

(now before you get back to your regular internet surfing...how about a sneak peek from flair?)

These were made with Flair Designs' new "Holly Jolly" and "Rejoice" Christmas collections.

I've been bitten...

I've been bitten. I've been bitten by the kit club bug. My local scrapbook store closed it's doors this summer and I've been stalking kit club sites trying to decide to join one or not. Then I wandered over to Melissa Phillip's blog. If you've never seen Melissa's card creations, you will be in for a treat. Well, that was where I saw it. The club. Only to find out that I missed it's debut. But nevertheless, I was bitten. I just joined The Scarlet Lime Kit Club. Check it out. If you join by Sept. 10, you have the option of purchasing the debut limited edition stamps from the September kit.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

She got me...I've been tagged

Well - she got me with a tag! Hilary K. tagged me, only I think she forgot to tell me. Oh well, I wandered over to her blog a few days later and found it. She wants me to list a few (8) random things about me. Gee, I hate to bore you - but I guess I needed to post on my blog anyway. Here goes.

1. I took piano for about 7 years.

2. I saw Elvis in concert around 1974 and cried when he came out. And I was pretty young, but I remember it.

3. I was born in France.

4. I've always had a dachshund in the family since as far as I can remember.

5. I taught myself how to sew, crochet, and cross-stitch.

6. I love to make Thanksgiving dinner.

7. My favorite color is purple.

8. I recently amazed my teenage son at my ability to cross my arms while jumping rope. (I thought you'd like that one.)

So.....I have some wonderful news. I've been asked to join the creative team at Creative Xpress! I'm thrilled about it. There is an amazing design team there and I can't believe I get to join them.

Last week Piggy Tales selected their 2007-2008 team and I was asked to join the team for the 2nd year. The new team (4 returning members and 6 new girls) consists of:

Ruth Clarke returning dt member
Melanie Douthit returning dt member
Becky Heisler
Tracie Hudson
Celia King returning dt member
Trina Linford - DT Coordinator / Co-Owner
Lacintha Naidoo
Julie Overby
Barb Pfeffer returning dt member
Teresa Tyree
Amber Winward

Congratulations to the new team!

I've been in the mood for some cooler weather, so I hope fall comes soon in the south. I pulled an older photo from my stash and scrapped it using Cosmo Cricket's new Gretel papers, which went great with Prism Paper's Kraft cardstock. That's all for now!

Whew - Not even friday and I'm worn out

Well - tomorrow marks the first full week of school. I'm worn out and I'm not even in school. Poor little miss - she's having a hard time adjusting. She LOVED going last week to meet her teacher. Absolutely loved it, but this week - not so much keen on going. Would rather hang out in the house with mom, but she always comes out at the end of the day with a smile on her face.

My son (who just had a birthday) just started high school! I don't even want to remember those days. You'd think I have all this "free" time, but I do believe I've been running more than usual. Partly b/c all these appts for me were put off until school started. That and just life. I'm hoping tomorrow is a restful productive day in my scraproom.

Meanwhile - it was an eventful week as far as magazine requests went. Two for an upcoming Memory Makers book, one for the January Scrapbook Trends issue, and one for a special Papercrafts publication. It's always fun getting those requests.

Here are a few pics from the first day of school. My son was - well, less than thrilled.

I'm melting.... and other hot topics

I'm melting...I'm melting!!!

That's what it feels like around here. 100 degree heat with an even higher heat index. I take comfort in knowing that cooler weather is (hopefully) just a few weeks away. Speaking of hot stuff - I was a crop last night and one of the girls was telling me about a fun tour of the Tabasco factory at Avery Island, South of Lafayette. I think we'll take a little weekend trip down there when it cools off. I'm all for a fun South Louisiana road trip. (but only when the weather cools down).

Here are a few creations with some hot new Piggy Tales CHA Summer releases. The first is from a Spring trip to New Orleans. The papers are from Piggy Tales "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" Paper collection. (Don't you just love that name?)



The next one is done with the collection called "Little Miss Muffett". So soft and girly - as the name implies.



And speaking of heat.... how about a Christmas page? Seriously. The photos were taken about 9 days before Christmas at a Winter Wonderland day at a local church. They had a snow machine and penned in areas for the small ones to "play" in the snow. Only the snow was melting so fast it was rock hard and difficult for Arielle to actually pick it up. But really, it was a cool idea to do and the first time she's ever seen "snow" even tho it wasn't real snow. Don't you feel for Rudolph and Frosty in those outfits? You just KNOW they were hot. The original title to this page was going to be "Deep South Christmas". LOL



and this is what we have to look forward to for the next several days: 100+ temperatures. The weather website has a map of "heat alerts", which I'm not sure what the purpose is unless its for people that don't know it's super hot outside. At least you know not to bring a sweater to a garden wedding by the river.

Where has it gone?

Where has the summer gone? It's almost over. Since we went to Walt Disney World - that took the place of our beach vacation. It's HARD because I feel like I'm missing something - not being at the beach. Maybe...just maybe.. we can squeeze in a weekend after Labor Day - a short weekend. Just to be able to go. We'll see. Frankly - I'm looking forward to school starting and getting everyone into new routine. Including myself. I think my dog will have a new routine, too. She'll actually be able to nap as much as she wants until school is over - or unless mom bugs her or the UPS man rings the doorbell. Or if I tell her a lizard is on the patio. Otherwise - she'll be entering a new phase of "it's a dog's life".

Here are a couple of new pages, just for fun. The group photo was taken at our last crop at the scrapbook store before it closed. A fun but bittersweet time.


This page was made with items from the July Poppy Ink kit. My daughter just loves this one. She's learned to read the titles and remembers telling me she wanted to fly.